Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was also the thirty-sixth Vice President (1953–1961) serving under Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is the only man to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to the Presidency, and he was the fifth Republican President to be elected to two terms. Nixon is noted for his diplomatic foreign policy and moderate domestic policy, but he is also remembered as the first and only U.S. President to have ever resigned from office. His resignation came after a loss of support in Congress amidst impending impeachment proceedings related to the Watergate scandal.

Birth and early years

Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California on January 9, 1913, to Francis Nixon and Hannah Milhous, who was descended from a German family originally called Milhausen. He was raised as an evangelical Quaker by his mother, who hoped he would become a Quaker missionary. His upbringing is said to have been marked by such conservative evangelical Quaker observances as refraining from drinking, dancing and swearing. His father (known as Frank) was an Irish Catholic who had sincerely converted to Quakerism but never fully absorbed its spirit, retaining instead a volatile temper.

Related Topics:
Yorba Linda, California - January 9 - 1913 - Francis Nixon - German - Evangelical - Quaker - Irish Catholic

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His father focused on the family business, a store that sold groceries and ARCO (then Atlantic Richfield) gasoline. Nixon always spoke highly of his parents. He often spoke lovingly of his mother as a "Quaker saint," and began his memoirs with the words "I was born in a house my father built." Today, the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace has been erected next to the original house in Yorba Linda, which is open to the public; however, Nixon actually grew up some miles away, in Whittier, California. Today, this area is completely built up, but in Nixon's time, it was almost entirely farmland. Nixon's early life was marked by tragedy in the deaths of two of his brothers, Arthur and Harold, from tuberculosis.

Related Topics:
ARCO - Atlantic Richfield - Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace - Whittier, California - Tuberculosis

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Nixon attended Fullerton High School from 1926-28 and Whittier High School from 1928-30. He graduated first in his class, with honors and was the General Manager of the Student Body in his senior year. He won an award from the Harvard Club of California as the state's outstanding high school senior. Among other achievements, he had a penchant for Shakespeare and Latin, and could recite long passages by heart. The award from Harvard provided him with a full scholarship, but since it did not cover living expenses, Nixon's family was unable to afford to send him away to college. Some historians and commentators have speculated that Nixon's lifelong antipathy towards the "Eastern Establishment" had its genesis in this initial letdown. In lieu of Harvard, Nixon attended Whittier College, a local Quaker school where he founded the Orthogonian Society, a fraternity that competed with the already established Franklin Society. Nixon then went on to become the student body president of Whittier College. A lifelong football buff, Nixon practiced with the team assiduously but spent most of his time on the bench. His front teeth were knocked out and replaced by the rather prominent bridgework that later afforded caricaturists a field day. Nixon's chief accomplishment as student body president was organizing Whittier College's first school dance, a practice forbidden by the Quakers.

Related Topics:
Harvard - California - Shakespeare - Latin - Whittier College - The Orthogonian Society - Fraternity - Football - Caricaturist

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In 1934 he graduated second in his class from Whittier and went on to Duke University School of Law, where he received a full scholarship. In order to retain his scholarship, Nixon had to maintain a high grade-point average. At one point, he was so overwrought about his grade results that he persuaded a cohort to help him through the transom door of the Dean's office, so that he could check the files. He was not punished. Years later, this incident came to light, and the press trumpeted it as "Nixon's first break-in."

Related Topics:
1934 - Duke University - School of Law - Scholarship

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Graduating third in his class, Nixon hoped to secure a job with one of the prestigious "white-shoe" law firms in New York City. For a variety of reasons, he had no luck. Some writers have agreed with Nixon's own explanation--that he lacked the requisite Ivy League pedigree and family connections--but it is also possible that he interviewed poorly. Around the time of Watergate, one of the senior partners at White & Case found notes from the original interview. The partner who had met Nixon opined that the future president came across as "shifty."

Related Topics:
White-shoe - New York City - Ivy League - Watergate - White & Case

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As a result, Nixon returned to California, passed the bar exam, and began working in the small-town law office of a family friend in nearby La Mirada. The work was mostly routine, and Nixon generally found it to be dull, although he was entirely competent. He later wrote that family law cases caused him particular discomfiture, since his reticent Quaker upbringing was severely at odds with the idea of discussing intimate marital details with strangers.

Related Topics:
Bar - La Mirada - Family law

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It was during this period that he met his wife Pat. She had accepted a position as a high-school teacher in Whittier. They became acquainted at a community Little Theater group when they were cast in the same play. At first, Pat displayed little interest in Nixon, who nonetheless pursued her so doggedly that he even drove her around on dates she had with other men. They were married at the Mission Inn in Riverside, California on June 21, 1940.

Related Topics:
Pat - Riverside, California - June 21 - 1940

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During World War II, Nixon served in the United States Navy. He could have been exempt from military service because of his status as a birthright Quaker, but volunteered anyway. Reportedly, his mother burst into tears when she first saw him in uniform. He later stated he hated Hitler and was horrified by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nixon served as a Cargo Officer in the South Pacific theater and put his shopkeeper's skills to work operating "Nick's Snack Shack," where military personnel could pick up hamburgers and fruit juice. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and his superiors praised him as an excellent officer and leader. One interesting footnote about Nixon's naval career is that he learned to play poker (another taboo under Quakerism) and quickly became known as the best poker player in the Navy, having apparently won almost $10,000 by war's end. It was in the Navy he met his future friend and Secretary of State William P. Rogers.

Related Topics:
World War II - United States Navy - Hitler - Attack on Pearl Harbor - South Pacific - Poker - Taboo - Secretary of State - William P. Rogers

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